Teaching to Multiple Intelligences
How will your understanding of multiple intelligences affect your teaching methodology? In what ways could you use your knowledge of how individuals process information when planning for your instructional delivery?
I found the section that listed the four categories of learning preferences and effective strategies for each to be extremely helpful. I will be looking into these strategies more and implementing the ones that I feel will benefit my students.
Reaching all students in any class environment is challenging, however, understanding each intellect of each individual or at least knowing to cover many teaching methods to reach as many students as possible provides a positive learning atmosphere. This information will assist in future class planning where each lesson will have multiple resources for the same information, each lesson should provide audio, visual, written, and hands-on components.
I use all of the learning styles in my classes, which keeps my students engaged and retention of knowledge/skills for long term success. I have the fortunate opportunity to teach a few management/business classes so I have classroom contact with a student a couple of times before they graduate. This has helped me have a better understanding of the way I have presented information and class discussions that have worked better then other methods I have used. Enjoyed this module. Thanks!
I find out in the second week of class the learning styles and incorporate these to my teaching . I find that there is always more of one style of learning and its the visual and kinesthetic that appear in my dental classes more than any other style. This makes application in the class easier for most students. I do use all types of learning styles and some will dread role playing but others love it. I will make them all try different learning styles.
Ellen,
The key to group work is that each member of a group is assigned a task that leads to successful completion of the project. This way every member contributes and has input. If it isn't done this way the group does not function well and you don't get the results that you want. I am sure we all have experienced being in groups like this.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
It's interesting because sometimes the students will tell you which teaching methodology they prefer. If I see a student writing the entire time I will ask them to just look up and perhaps figure out a problem or situation that I've put on the board. They may say, I prefer just to observe, I'll say that's okay too, but at times you must participate in the group conversation. As the course states, sometimes a student will need to go outside their comfort zone.
I have never looked at this concept before. I think knowing where students share common ground would make integrating new ideas much easier. I think people naturally gravitate toward others who think the way they do. Putting groups together like that would allow them to all work at a similar pace and hopefully avoid the one student whom does nothing. But then I would be afraid I could end up with one group who gets nothing done. I would have to try it and see how it works. I generally do not use groups.
I agree with you Bruce. I notice that our students appear to have better retention on certain exam concepts. Especially those lecture concepts that contained fun, hands on activities that the students seemed to truly enjoy.
Various theories on learning have been developed with increasing frequency in the last few decades. In order to understand the relationship between these theories, Curry's onion model (Curry, 1983) was developed with four layers -- personality learning theories, information processing theories, social learning theories, and multidimensional and instructional theories.
Social learning theories determine how students interact in the classroom and include Reichmann's and Grasha's types of learners: independent, dependent, collaborative, competitive, participant, and avoidant.
Multidimensional and instructional theories address the student's environmental preference for learning and includes the Learning Style Model of Dunn and Dunn and the multiple intelligences theory of Howard Gardner. This chapter focuses on this type of learning theory by Howard Gardner.
Curtis,
You are right about the need to plan for all types of MI instruction and this way you will touch on the different learning preferences of students. The results will keep them engaged and moving forward in their knowledge acquisition as well as skill development.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I do not feel that an instructor can customize learning to each student's MI strengths. However, planning to include all types of MI in instruction will ensure that each student's MI needs for learning are being addressed.
The use of the four teaching methods help simplify the overload of misunderstanding your students and there different intelligences.
Judy,
I use pretesting as well because I like getting a baseline on my students so I can then customize my instruction to better meet their learning needs.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Russell,
This is going to yield great rewards with your instructional efforts. By being able to engage all of the learning preferences of your students in the learning process you are going to have satisfied students that will increase their knowledge and skills in a way that will yield rewards for them as they move closer to their career goals.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
This is where giving a pretest is very helpful!
I teach in a lecture/lab setting. So we already have to accommodate for the different types of learners that we have at school, but having the understanding will make it easier for me to adjust my teaching so that I am able to include everyone and have everyone actually absorb the information.
It will help me to better assist my students to learn and process material of the course. My course does offer the different methods of presenting material and concepts; all I have to do is use all the varied instructional delivery approaches and I’m sure they all will be able to learn.
Understanding that students have multiple intelligences allows me to plan accordingly.
Using an assessment to determine a student's preferred learning style is good information, but unless each instructor is made aware of the student's preferred learning style in advance of lesson planning and content delivery, the assessment really means very little in the big picture. In an ideal world, students with similar learning styles could be grouped together with instructors using delivery methods that match their learning style. But we all know this is not realistic, and all too often instructors fall back on "canned" lesson plans and delivery methods that may or may not hit their target audience effectively. I have often wondered if final class grades are an accurate measure of a student's capacity to learn the material, or are they a measure of the effectiveness of my ability to instruct my students. A low class average tells me something needs to change.
